Innovation Is In The DNA Of Crompton: Sanjeev Agrawal

Q1: The technological era has brought with it more ease for consumers. What are some of the firm’s latest innovations in this regard, for greater ease of use of its products?
 As you know Innovation is in the DNA of Crompton. We have been working closely with the consumer. We have been doing a lot of consumer interaction exercises, visiting consumer homes to find out what their pain points are… What are their challenges in application of our products or kind of similar product lines. And then we work on the solution. Solutions in terms of user interfaces, better designs, better technology as well as to solve the consumer pain points. Lately, if you will see we have recently launched large number of appliances especially chimney for homes, which are based on deeper consumer insights. 

For instance, when we visited homes and interacted with consumers, especially housewives, the noise of the chimney was a very big pain point. If you are able to work out technology which makes their life easy in terms of noise they can talk, they can listen if somebody’s calling, they can chat over the phone, chat with the kids.

So we came up with a wide range of chimneys which have lower noise levels while operating. Similarly another pain point they mention is about the cleaning of the chimney. So we have come up with an automatic cleaning function in the chimneys. We are solving the pain points of the consumers through our innovations. If you go to other product lines, for instance air coolers, in the summer time people want to experience quick cooling. So we launched a ‘jaldi cooling campaign’ as well as jaldi cooling technology (quick cooling technology). The consumer can experience faster cooling as compared to a normal cooler. 

There are several other examples also. In recent times, we have done innovations in terms of fans. For instance, the consumer says that when they are using normal fans they have to increase the volume of television because noise produced from the fan is actually disturbing the audio from the television. So they have to increase the volume of the television and sometimes the noise is disturbing in their sleep as well. So we introduced the Silent Pro Range, which is basically having very less noise as compared to normal fans. So those kinds of innovations continue. There are many success stories from our side. We continue to innovate in those areas and are preparing the solutions using the consumers needs and also the technology advancement.

Q2: With an elaborate legacy of over 80 years, what are some of the key changes that the firm has observed with regard to its consumers?
As you know Crompton is a household name for the last 80 years. We have been continuously delivering and working with the consumers for solving their problems. I mean in recent times, as I mentioned, we have interacted much more technological nfusions that means bringing much more technologies in terms of noise, in terms of energy efficiency, in terms of user interfaces and of course ease of use in recent product lines.

Across all the product categories, our interaction with consumers has increased significantly and also when we prepare our product line, we think about consumers and how they get benefitted from our innovations. That’s the key DNA for us. Innovation is not only the responsibility of R & D. It’s a company core embedded value. Now it’s a basic purpose statement for us how we can improve the life of our consumers by sustainable innovations.

Q3: How is the firm amalgamating digitisation with innovation?
That’s a very interesting question. If you really recall the last two and half years, roughly three years, covid has significantly accelerated the digitalisation in all parts of life. Right from communication to entertainment, to experience. Everywhere digitalisation has increased significantly and this has resulted in as you may see, from office workers to factory workers till the ultimate consumers, this interface is evident so we have been deploying this technology in terms of all the parts of the area.

For instance, we have increased our innovation in terms of digitally connected products so we have more than 10 digitally connected products. The consumer can experience for instance our Immensa light lamp. Consumers can change the colour setting , mood setting because they are spending more time at home and create different environments as per their moods, as per their needs.

If someone wants to experience party time, they can change to task light or ambience lighting. Similarly, we have connected fans. During the sleep time, you can adjust to various types of environments. 

When we say environment that means you can say as a comfort mode. You can have a breeze of air so that you can feel a continuous flow of air. You can get a comfortable sleep, so we have been continuously innovating in terms of digitalising the products. We have also increased our consumer experience so our consumers can access our brands blogs, information much more. Digitally everywhere, a lot of information, a lot of digital assets are there. 

Our marketing colleagues have been working and creating them for consumer education as well as consumer experience. On the company working side also we are accelerating our digital journey in terms of accessibility to employees, the use of engineering information, use of commercial information, using the mobile application as well as accessibility of information in terms of their work area round the clock so it has helped.

As you know consumers are also becoming much more digital savvy so is their demand in terms of experience. Different technologies, different consumer experiences, for instance design, has increased as one of the key elements. We learned our consumers are becoming more demanding. They now have access globally to lots of different designs, different features so they requested various consumer immersions. We also found that their education level has significantly gone up in the last two years, so that means their demand from the companies has increased significantly. So we have to prepare consumer needs and demands accordingly. This is how we work for the entire situation.

Q4: With greater internet accessibility, a large number of independent players are emerging in the field of customization for products. How is the firm keeping up with these growing changes?
When we say customisation we have to decode in two different ways. One is when we say customisation, people are actually demanding. For instance, as we learn in covid times, people started spending more time at home so they are interacting more with the electrical as well as non electrical devices. For example, use of all kinds of indoor household appliances has increased for sure. Because of this reason what’s happening they are asking much more. For instance quieter fans, quieter chimneys, quieter mixer grinder. They have also started feeling for those products in terms of matching interior of the homes for instance the wall. They have started demanding the product to be much more matching to their aesthetics.

We see lots of interactions have been increased in terms of the demand side as well as the application side. We have seen the use of the fan has increased quite a lot. Users of domestic appliances have increased too. They are starting to demand much more in terms of durability and performance. Those kinds of inherent needs start coming and we have been actually working to solve those needs and our latest innovations as well.

Second thing as you mentioned is to customise. One is the application side and second is of course the aesthetic side. So we introduced lots of new colours, new user interfaces. Because there are two kinds of products. One is very consumer interactive applications like mixer grinder, toaster, OTG where consumers interact on a daily basis. Then we have lots of fixed installation products like fan, lighting, water heater which is also important but that’s much more matching with aesthetics, matching with internal decor and also some of the people want lots of interfaced devices. For instance they are using mixer grinder and OTG, and feel several other features are needed in the oven or several other user interfaces have to be improved in the mixer grinder. Such needs are converting into good consumer reposition and solution.

Q5: The digital age also brings with it a growing environmental concern. How is the firm keeping this in mind, while bringing about innovations?
In terms of environment safety and protection, we see it in two ways. One is how we ensure that we can use minimum wastage in our manufacturing of our product and how our products can be sustainable in terms of environment-friendly. As a company we are very cautious about the safety of the environment in our manufacturing process. We use lots of environment-friendly material and proper disposal of those materials in the perk line. There has been a major shift towards energy saving, so most of our products are in that line. Our fans also consume lesser electricity. As you know, the new BE norms which have been implemented from the beginning of this year, where the power consumption of the fan reduces from traditionally 70-80-85 watt to between 50-55 watt. So we are very cognizant about those facts and we are continuously working and innovating for sustainable material and sustainable performance. Energy is one of the key areas, apart from environment. Of course energy is also produced with lots of environmentally hazardous material like coal.

Q6: How has the post-COVID era been for the firm? What are some of the consumer trends to look out for? Any projections for the coming times?
During the covid times we saw new emerging uses of products. Consumer interaction with the products has increased the expectations in terms of noise level. It has been one of the key parameters which emerged during these times. So we have prepared those kind of solutions. People started spending more time in the house. They have started interacting much more with air coolers, fans. These kind of insights have helped us to innovate more product lines.

When you are sitting at home for one hour it is different from when you are sitting another 5 hour or 8 hours for working from the same room. You start looking at the walls or the fans and feel why haven’t I changed things for so long. These kind of trends have emerged and it has become need and demand going forward for the technology side, application side. Aesthetics will perform better and we are geared up to meet all those innovative requirements.

We are continuously working on the energy efficient technologies, lots of work on the material side in order to sustain the material as well as the performance side in terms of reliability, durability as well as core performance of the product. So for instance how we can improve the performance of fan to deliver to each part of the room not only in centre. How our air cooler become much better in terms of air delivery and much more faster cooling. How water heaters become much more heating and retained the heat for a longer time and what kind of material we can use in those kinds of application. This is a continuous evaluation happening. Similarly for light also. How we can make light which is smoothing as well as dimensional for consumers in terms of distribution and eye safety. These kinds of consumer needs and innovation we are continuously building in our product line.